We saw some wildlife...

This cow moose was about the only moose we saw this summer. We were up at Circle Park at just the wrong times, I guess. But! This cow was obliging; she posed for us.

This guy was bragging up his fairly small rack...

Then one Sunday, we got home from meeting and saw this buck hanging out under one of our trees. But, check out the froth...we weren't sure what that might mean, so Michael clicked a few pics and herded it out of the yard...

This post is a bit of a majestic photo...he's not so sure of Michael.

Then these little twin fawns hung out at the office most of the summer. Aren't they cute?

Snowshoeing!

Some friends of ours rented a Forest Service cabin in the mountains and invited us up there to spend the day. So we took them up on it! It was a lovely, sunny day, but cold. Something like 6 degrees when we got there, and 2 when we left.

On the way, we saw this bull moose. He stopped and looked at us when I called out, "Hey, Bullwinkle!"

Here is Heidi, Josie, Emma and Bella. Heidi had Emma help pull her and Josie up the hill. Bella hung around amusing herself with angering Emma. A 1 1/2 year old Emma and a 10 year old Bella, both dominant females...did they ever snarl and growl at each other!

Here we are, Annisia, Michael, Quinn, Audra, and Ray, at the top of the hill. Not a mountain, but a fair hill. Jonathan was a trooper! He stomped his way right up that hill. He thought snowshoeing was fun. On the way down, he tried running, which can be done, yes, but a little difficult for a young'un. He kept falling down, face first! He'd lay there and laugh. (which I enjoyed!) One time, he fell right into a patch of powder, and got a face full of snow! He just giggled! I'm glad he had a good first experience on snowshoes. The video below is taken just after Daddy cinched him in and I got the camera out. See, he's a natural!

Camping and Spotting Moose

This past weekend, we went up to our camper parked in , yep, you guessed it, Circle Park. We stayed the night, got up for breakfast and discovered our dog was missing. So we went out looking for her and Michael's brother Bret drove up. I guess he's lucky to have around because we found her within minutes! She was treeing squirrels! (Or they were pretending to be treed just to tease her!) We had to move our trailer, so we brought it up by Bret's in the Hazelton area. We went for a little hike Saturday afternoon to get the kids sleepy and Annisia was asleep in my ERGOcarrier before we got out of the campsite! Jonathan fell asleep within about 20 minutes, so we came back to the campsite. Now, do you think you could sleep like this?!

Later, we went up Hazelton Rd to fish in the Powder River. We saw these moose on the way, just milling around the willows and munching. Pretty big paddles, don't you think? Nichole, you just have to come visit us.

Uncle Bret is showing Jonathan how to fly fish. Jonathan thought the whole thing was pretty cool. Bret caught a 10 inch rainbow trout, held it out for Jonathan to touch, and just when he was going to touch it, Bret thrust it out and said, "Rowr!" You should have seen Jonathan jump! Needless to say, he didn't want to touch any other ones!!

Do you see Michael in the background sneaking up on the fish?

On the way back, the moose were still there. Sorry about the dark photo, but these are some nice sets of antlers.

Memorial Day weekend

We bought a travel trailer! Now Michael will get me camping. We decided to go up into the mountains over Memorial Day. We camped in this grove of aspens...a pleasant spot by the creek. The weather was perfect for relaxing and hiking.

The kids and I chilled after our hike. They really did well, for the most part. Being in the trailer is a novelty, so napping was a difficulty. Well, actually, quite impossible. However, Mommy did well letting the dirt happen! Kudos to me!

Daddy has the whole hammock thing down pat. However, this hammock has a hole in it and it's big enough for Jonathan to plum fall out of! Oops!

We saw about 8 moose munching down by the creek about 1/4 mile from our camp. Early Memorial Day morning, Michael walked up here where we had seen them the evening before. He came nearly face to face with one! So he shot a couple pics, then came back to camp and we all drove back to see them again as its' not really a good idea to hike into a camp of moose with 2 small kids.

We plan to go back to this same spot this fall. Won't it be lovely with the aspen leaves turning? And the moose will have their antlers, a really great sight for all of us. I think that's the front of Cloud Peak in the background. Anyone want to come hike it with Michael? I don't think he'll get me to do it again! (heehee)